Lessons #71 and 72
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual exposition not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GWT = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reasons to be considerate of others (Titus 3:3-7)
... 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
We have come to the fourth fact Apostle Paul states about our salvation. This fourth fact is that our salvation involves the gift of the Holy Spirit such that the Holy Spirit indwells the believer and the believer benefits from His presence. It is this fact that is given in the clause of Titus 3:6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.
There are two observations we should make about our clause before we expound on it. A first observation is that it references all the three members of the Godhead, two directly and one implied. The Holy Spirit is directly mentioned because of the relative pronoun whom refers to the Holy Spirit mentioned in verse 5. The second member of the Godhead, the son is mentioned in the phrase through Jesus Christ. The implication is that “he” used in the clause will refer to God the Father who is not directly mentioned but implied. The implied mention of God the Father leads to the second observation which is that the clause confirms that our salvation is the work of the Godhead although in some instances one member of the Godhead may be mentioned. The interrelationship of the members of the Godhead is one that we cannot fully understand but we have enough information in the Scripture to recognize that each member has specified function but there is a time when a given function may involve all or two members of the Godhead. This will be the case in the clause we are about to consider as it will be evident later. Meanwhile, it is because of the clause that we are considering references all members of the Godhead that it is better to interpret, as we did, the phrase God our Savior of verse 4 as a reference to the Godhead instead of a specific member of the Godhead. In any event, our concern is to support our assertion that the fourth fact concerning our salvation the apostle states is that it involves the gift of the Holy Spirit. This fact hinges on the understanding of the clause whom he poured out on us generously.
We have already indicated that the pronoun whom refers to the Holy Spirit. This being the case, our concern is to understand what it means that the Holy Spirit has been poured out on us generously. To do this, we need to examine the key expression “poured out” used in the clause. The expression “poured out” is translated from a Greek word (ekcheō) that means to cause to discharge in quantity hence means “to pour out” with different nuances both literally and figuratively. Relating to liquid, it may mean “to spill” as it is used regarding wine in Jesus’ statement recorded in Matthew 9:17:
Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
The sentence the wine will run out is literally the wine pours out but the sense of the word is that of “to spill” as reflected in the translation of some English versions such as the ESV and the NET, to mention a few. With respect to solid objects the word may mean “to scatter” as it is used in the scattering of coins by Jesus when He drove people away from the temple for merchandizing in it, according to John 2:15:
So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.
The English versions that are more literal in their translation such as the NASB and the ESV translated the sentence he scattered the coins of the money changers of the NIV as he poured the coins of the money changers. Of course, the sense of our Greek word in this passage is that of “to scatter” and so majority of our English versions translated the word like the NIV. The Greek word may mean “to burst open, to gush out”, as it is used to describe the death of Judas Iscariot in Acts 1:18:
(With the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out.
The Greek word may mean “to shed” when it is used with respect to blood where the sense of murder is conveyed as in the death of Stephen, as referenced in the defense of Apostle Paul before Jewish audience in Jerusalem as recorded in Acts 22:20:
And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.’
The Greek word may mean “to bestow, give” as that is the sense of our word in its usage in Acts 10:45:
The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.
The sentence the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles means the gift of the Holy Spirit has been bestowed or given to the Gentiles. Therefore, the sentence the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles may be translated the gift of the Holy Spirit had been bestowed even on the Gentiles. This makes sense since it is the coming upon of the Holy Spirit on those assembled in Cornelius house that heard the preaching of the gospel that is referred as the pouring of the gift of the Holy Spirit, according to Acts 10:44:
While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.
The Greek word figuratively may mean “to cause to fully experience” hence it is in the sense of “to show” or “to experience” that the word is used in Romans 5:5:
And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
The sentence God has poured out his love into our hearts may be translated as “how much he has shown our hearts how much he loves us” as suggested in UBS handbook on Romans. The Greek English lexicon of Louw and Nida suggests the translation “our hearts have been made to fully experience the love of God.” The Greek word may mean “to plunge into, to give oneself up to, to dedicate oneself in total commitment to something,” as it is used in Jude 11:
Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.
The sentence they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error may be translated they have given themselves up to the error of Balaam for gain indicating that our Greek word translated “rushed” in the NIV has the sense of “to give oneself up to something.”
We have considered the various meanings of our Greek word, so the question is; which of these meanings is appropriate in our passage of Titus 3:6? It is the meaning of “to bestow, to give” that the Apostle Paul had in mind. This meaning is supported by the fact that our Greek word is used in the Septuagint of Joel 2:28:
“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
The expression “pour out” is translated from a Hebrew word (šāp̄ǎḵ) that literally means “to pour out” in the sense of to cause to flow of a liquid but it could also mean “to cause to happen”, “to lavish, bestow, that is, to give out an object in great abundance.” It is this usage that is helpful in understanding the usage of our Greek word in Titus 3:6 since this passage of Joel is quoted by Apostle Peter during his sermon on the day of Pentecost recorded in second chapter of Acts that he referenced in Acts 2:33:
Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.
This understanding of the Greek word in Titus 3:6 means that the clause whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior refers to the gift of the Holy Spirit that believers receive at salvation so that the Holy Spirit indwells them and they benefit from His presence. Of course, this gift of the Holy Spirit is freely and graciously given.
What then is this outpouring of the Holy Spirt described in the clause whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior? This outpouring of the Holy Spirit in this clause is the same as the baptism with the Holy Spirit that the Lord Jesus promised His disciples. Let me justify this interpretation with several facts.
First, it is this outpouring of the Holy Spirit to the church, which occurred on the day of Pentecost that is meant in the phrase baptism with the Holy Spirit found in John the Baptist’s declaration concerning a ministry of Jesus Christ in Luke 3:16:
John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
You see, before our Lord Jesus’ ascension, following His resurrection, He promised the disciples they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit, according to Acts 1:5:
For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
Ten days later, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out to all believers according to Acts 2:1-4:
1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
This passage creates great confusion with respect to the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Firstly, because many assume that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is the same as being filled of the Holy Spirit when the two are different. Baptism with the Spirit is a divine act by Jesus Christ in which He identifies a person as a member of His body that results in a person being indwelt by the Holy Spirit while filling of the Spirit refers to the Holy Spirit’s control of the believer that results in empowerment of the believer. Furthermore, to equate baptism with the Holy Spirit with the filling with the Spirit is to confuse two distinct phenomena. It is to say that baptism with the Spirit occurred before the day of Pentecost since there were several individuals that were filled with the Holy Spirit before the day of Pentecost, such as Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist and Elizabeth, her mother. If there was baptism with the Spirit before Jesus’ death and resurrection that will contradict His promise of baptism with the Spirit as a future event. By the way, the baptism with the Spirit is not the same as baptism by Spirit mentioned in 1 Corinthian 12:13. It is the ministry of the Holy Spirit whereby all believers are placed in Christ. Secondly, many equate baptism with the Spirit with speaking in tongues. This is incorrect since not everyone that is a recipient of the baptism with the Spirit speaks in tongue as indicated by the correction of the confusion regarding speaking in tongues in the Corinthian church. Everyone in Corinthian local church is a beneficiary of the baptism with the Holy Spirit but not everyone spoke in tongues or had the gift of speaking tongues. In any event, baptism with the Spirit is the same as the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Second, we assert that baptism with the Holy Spirit is the same as the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as it related to believers because Apostle Peter understood the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as the baptism with the Holy Spirit that the Lord Jesus promised. Peter had witnessed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on those assembled in the house of Cornelius, a Gentile, who heard the gospel message. He considered it to be the same as what happened on the day of Pentecost, especially, as described in the passage we cited previously, that is, Acts 10:44–46:
44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. 45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. 46 For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said,
Some members of the early church in Jerusalem that were still caught up with Jewish custom of not associating with Gentiles were upset that Peter went to Gentiles. To satisfy these misguided believers, Peter narrated what happened in the house of Cornelius. When recounting his experience with the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius, Peter described the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at that occasion as the baptism with the Holy Spirit as it is clear in Acts 11:15–16:
15 “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’
So, you see, Peter clearly understood the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that is described as the Holy Spirit coming on the Gentiles assembled in the house of Cornelius as the baptism with the Holy Spirit. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit to Gentiles was done exactly in the same way as to Jewish believers so that they would recognize that Gentiles are as much believers in Christ as they are. It is this argument that Peter used in the first church council in Jerusalem to indicate that Gentile Christians should not be burdened with ceremonial aspects of the Mosaic Law, in Acts 15:8:
God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.
Third, that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit better explains how the Holy Spirit comes into the believer. Apostle Paul reminded the Corinthians that the Holy Spirit is in them since they are the temple of the Holy Spirit, as stated in 1 Corinthians 6:19:
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
The apostle also conveyed the same truth that the Holy Spirit lives in the believer, as he stated in 2 Timothy 1:14:
Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
However, there is no other place in his epistle where he taught explicitly of how the Holy Spirit came to live in the Corinthians or in all believers. Nonetheless, he made an oblique reference to this doctrine of baptism with the Holy Spirit as the procedure by which the Holy Spirit comes to reside in the believer in 1 Corinthians 12:13:
For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
This passage has generated many interpretations by scholars. The real issue of the passage is whether the apostle is describing one event or two events. Some take the position that the apostle was describing one event that they describe as baptism with the Spirit in the clause we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body that, according to this view, was described in another way in the clause we were all given the one Spirit to drink. This is unlikely since such an interpretation requires that the Greek conjunction (kai) translated “and” in the verse should be understood as a marker of explanation. It is difficult to see how the second clause explains the first since the second clause is given in an imagery that is not easy to explain. If anything, the conjunction should be taken as adding a second clause that is of equal significance or rank as the first hence the translation “and.” Therefore, it is better to recognize that the apostle was concerned with two doctrines. In the first clause we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body he taught a doctrine of the union of believers and Christ. In other words, he taught how believers come to be in union with Christ or how believers are placed in Christ through the agency of the Holy Spirit in keeping with the Lord’s declaration of the believer being in Him because of the Holy Spirit that He promised to send, as in John 14:20:
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
Consequently, the first clause of 1 Corinthians 12:13 we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body is the apostle’s implied teaching of how believers are in Christ or in union with Him. In effect, it is the clause that explains how the declaration of the Lord Jesus of John 14:20 you are in me is realized. The Holy Spirit is the One who places them in Christ. That is not all the apostle wanted to teach the Corinthians, so in the second clause we were all given the one Spirit to drink he taught them of how the Holy Spirit comes to live in believers, that is, that second clause is concerned with the baptism with the Holy Spirit that in effect explains how the declaration of the Lord in John 14:20 and I am in you is accomplished. He did this using a figurative language to describe his doctrine of the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Drinking involves some form of fluid but here the apostle says that all believers were caused to drink the one Spirit. Certainly, the apostle is not being literal since there is no way we can drink of the Holy Spirit who is a person and God. But in using the image of drinking the apostle was thinking of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that results in the Holy Spirit indwelling all believers. This outpouring of the Spirit, we have indicated is the baptism with the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ promised. There is another factor that helps us understand the second doctrine of 1 Corinthians 12:13 involves the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Those who drink the Holy Spirit are believers, the Holy Spirit is the object involved in the drinking, but the one who causes believers to drink or who gives the drink is missing. Jesus is the agent of baptism with the Holy Spirit and so He is the One that causes believers to drink the Holy Spirit. When we drink fluid, it remains in side of us. So, when the apostle indicates that we all drink the one Spirit then he means that we all receive the Holy Spirit who then indwells us. This, again, is the outpouring of the Spirit that we have described as the baptism with the Holy Spirit. As the apostle wrote this figurative sentence, he was probably thinking of the Holy Spirit that would be in the believer that our Lord spoke of in terms of water in John 7:37-39:
37 On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
In any event, we contend that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is the same as the baptism with the Holy Spirit because it better explains how the Holy Spirit comes into the believer.
Fourth, that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is because the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul indicates that Jesus Christ is the agent of the outpouring of the Spirit in the Titus 3:6 that we are considering, which will agree to the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ of baptizing His disciples with the Holy Spirit.
Where in Titus 3:6 is the Lord Jesus described as the agent of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, you may ask? It is conveyed in the last phrase of Titus 3:6 through Jesus Christ our Savior. The preposition “through” is translated from a Greek preposition (dia) that in our passage is capable of at least two interpretations. It may be interpreted as a marker of cause or reason with the meaning “because of.” The implication of this interpretation is that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is because of Jesus Christ. Another interpretation is to consider the Greek preposition as marker of personal agency and so means “through, by.” The implication of this interpretation is that Jesus Christ is the agent of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Which of these interpretations was in the mind of the apostle? It is true that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is because of Jesus Christ but the apostle definitely had in his mind the meaning of “agency” so that in the use of the word “through”, he meant that Jesus Christ is the agent of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This interpretation is indeed correct because it attests to the declaration of Apostle Peter when he explained the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost that he mentioned in the passage we previously cited, that is, Acts 2:33:
Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.
The pronoun he here in Acts refers to Jesus Christ. Hence, because Apostle Peter indicated that it is Jesus Christ that poured out the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and because the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost is the baptism with the Holy Spirit then we are correct in asserting that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit the Apostle Paul referenced in Titus 3:6 is the same as the baptism with the Holy Spirit.
In any case, it is our interpretation that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is the same as the baptism with the Spirit that is conveyed in the clause of Titus 3:6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of our interpretation and because not many Christians understand this subject, it is necessary to explore the baptism with the Holy Spirit and so that of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit beginning with several observations concerning it.
First, the baptism with the Holy Spirit or the outpouring of the Holy Spirit does not necessarily involve spectacular display of any kind. We say this because some contend that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is always accompanied by speaking in tongues because on the day of Pentecost when the first outpouring of the Holy Spirit occurred, all the believers spoke in tongues, as stated in Acts 2:4:
All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
This was also true when the outpouring of the Spirit occurred when Peter preached the gospel to Gentiles assembled in Cornelius house as in the passage we cited previously, that is, Acts 10:46:
For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said,
Because of these two examples and the experience of new converts in Samaria (although it is not explicitly stated that those in Samaria spoke in tongues) and the twelve men in Ephesus, described in the nineteenth chapter of Acts, who also spoke in tongues after they received the Holy Spirit, some contend that in all cases of baptism with the Holy Spirit, there must be speaking in tongues. Our concern is not to go into any discussion of this matter in detail here but to convey that subsequent baptism with the Holy Spirit does not necessarily involve the spectacular such as the speaking in tongues. This is proven by the fact that not all people in the local church in Corinth spoke in tongue as evident in tApostle’s Paul treatment of this matter in his epistle to them, as indicated in the questions recorded in 1 Corinthians 12:30:
Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?
The question Do all speak in tongues? suggests that not all believers in Corinth spoke in tongues. However, every believer in Corinth received the baptism with the Holy Spirit. This is because, as we have previously stated, the apostle indicated that every believer is the beneficiary of the baptism with the Holy Spirit that he conveyed in the passage, we cited previously, that is, 1 Corinthians 12:13:
For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
Recall we established that the clause we were all given the one Spirit to drink is concerned with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, that is, the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Therefore, since not every believer in Corinth spoke in tongues but all were recipients of the baptism with the Spirit, it follows that baptism with the Holy Spirit does not mean that all beneficiaries of it would speak in tongues. Furthermore, since there is no record that when the Apostle preached the gospel to the Corinthians that there was outpouring of the Holy Spirit as was in the case of the day of Pentecost or in the house of Cornelius, we must conclude that the baptism with the Spirit continues to take place today without any spectacular event of speaking in tongues associated with it or prophesying as was the case with the twelve men recorded in Acts 19 we will get to later.
Second, in the early church, the apostles were intermediate agents of the baptism with the Spirit. This observation is based on two recorded examples in Acts. The first was when the believers in Samaria received the Holy Spirit that is a result of the baptism with the Spirit, as recorded in Acts 8:14-19:
14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. 15 When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. 18 When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money 19 and said, "Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit."
Remember that it was Philip, the evangelist, who preached the gospel to the Samaritans but the giving of the Holy Spirit was delayed until Peter and John placed their hands on them and prayed for them. The implication is that it is because Philip was not an apostle as an intermediate agent of Christ that he could not have prayed for them to receive the Holy Spirit. The other incident of receiving of the Holy Spirit that is a result of baptism with the Holy Spirit involved Apostle Paul, as described in Acts 19:1-7:
1 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2 and asked them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" They answered, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." 3 So Paul asked, "Then what baptism did you receive?" "John's baptism," they replied. 4 Paul said, "John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus." 5 On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all.
The Holy Spirit that these twelve received is a result of the baptism with the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ administers. It is important we assert this truth that only the apostles as the personal representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ were delegated as the intermediate agents of baptism with the Holy Spirit. This is because there are those who today claim that they could lay their hands on people so as to receive the baptism with the Spirit. However, as we noted, Philip the evangelist could not do this because he was not an apostle so no one who is not an apostle could do this. Another reason for being clear about this truth is that there are some who believe that Apostle Paul received the baptism with the Holy Spirit through Ananias, as recorded in Acts 9:17:
Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord-Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here — has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit."
Ananias was the agent of healing of Paul and of his being filled of the Holy Spirit but the filling of the Holy Spirit is not the same as baptism with the Holy Spirit, as we have already established. Therefore, Ananias was only an agent of the Paul’s filling of the Spirit.
Third, there is no record of an individual receiving this outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Scripture. When the Ethiopian Eunuch was saved there was no indication of this outpouring of the Spirit with him. Of course, someone could argue that it was because Philip was not an apostle and therefore could not be an intermediate agent of the baptism with the Spirit. But then, the Philippian jailer was saved through the preaching of the Apostle Paul but nothing was said of him receiving the outpouring of the Spirit or being baptized with the Spirit. However, Luke reports that the jailer and his family were baptized with water, according to Acts 16:33:
At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized.
It is true that we do not have a record of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the jailer and his family that believed but we are certain that baptism with the Spirit occurred because no one would enjoy any manifestation of the Holy Spirit if the Holy Spirit is not living in the person. However, the jailer was filled with joy of the type the Holy Spirit provides, as implied in the assertion of Acts 16:34:
The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God — he and his whole family.
The implication is that the Holy Spirit was already in him to produce a facet of the fruit of the Spirit, joy. In any event, in all cases reported in the book of Acts, only groups of believers received this outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It is probably because of this fact that the Apostle Paul wrote in the manner he did in Titus 3:6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior. He indicated that the Holy Spirit is poured out on believers as a group because he used the pronoun us that refers to believers inclusive of the apostle. This, of course, does not mean that an individual believer is not a recipient of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit only that such event is generally reported as occurring with groups of believers instead of an individual. The situation is similar to the case where the Holy Spirit is said to live in the church and in the individual believer. The corporate indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the church is stated in 1 Corinthians 3:16:
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
But the individual indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the concern of the passage we cited previously, that is, 1 Corinthians 6:19:
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
The point is that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is generally described in the Scripture as it relates to group of believers and not individuals although each believer receives the outpouring of the Spirit, that is, the baptism with the Holy Spirit.
Fourth, a person may believe in Jesus Christ but know nothing about the baptism with the Holy Spirit although the person has received it. Therefore, it is necessary to explain to any believer about this doctrine so they recognize it. It was probably this explanation that Priscilla and Aquila gave to Apollos who knew of Jesus and so believed in Him but only knew of John’s baptism, according to Acts 18:25-26:
25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.
Apollos knew nothing about the baptism with the Holy Spirit; otherwise, the Holy Spirit through Luke would not have made the issue that Apollos knew only of the baptism of John. A person who knew only of John’s baptism would certainly not have known that there is such a thing as baptism of the Holy Spirit. We contend that Apollos received the baptism with the Spirit at his conversion meaning that the Holy Spirit indwelt him but he did not recognize it. However, the presence of the Holy Spirit in him was responsible for him speaking boldly in the Synagogue. It is therefore important that believers be taught about the baptism with the Spirit so that they could make use of all that is possible through the baptism with the Spirit.
Fifth, the baptism with the Holy Spirit or the outpouring of the Spirit will result in the initial filling of the Spirit but that does not mean that the initial recipient will remain full of the Spirit. For if this was the case then when the apostles selected the seven men to serve the early church in administration of material affairs of the church they would not have specified that the men chosen should be full of the Holy Spirit since all the early disciples experienced this outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. But because not everyone that experienced the outpouring of the Holy Spirit remains full of the Holy Spirit then the qualification that includes being full of the Holy Spirit is given in Acts 6:3:
Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them
The phrase full of the Spirit means one who is completely under the control of the Spirit. He is the person who remains under the normal filling of the Spirit, which we describe as being under the control of the Holy Spirit. When a person is full of the Spirit he could also reflect the characteristic of those specially filled with the Spirit in that such a person could see things as those prophesying under the special filling of the Spirit as in case of Stephen in Acts 7:55:
But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
There is more we need to consider regarding the baptism with the Holy Spirit or the outpouring of the Spirit and we will do so in our next study.
10/13/17